Make a Scatter Plot on a Map with Plotly and Excel

Scatter Plots on Maps with Plotly

Step 1

Upload your Excel data to Plotly's grid

Open the data file for this tutorial in Excel. You can download the file here in CSV format

Step 2

Head to Plotly

Head to Plotly's Workspace and sign into your free Plotly account. Go to 'Import', click 'Upload a file', then choose your Excel file to upload. Your Excel file will now open in Plotly's grid. For more about Plotly's grid, see this tutorial

Step 3

Creating Your Chart

Head to the 'MAKE A PLOT' dropdown and select 'Scatter map.' In this case, we'll only need the 'lat,' 'lon,' and incoming flights data. Click the 'Text' option on the left panel; choose the incoming flight data as T.

Your plot would initially look something like this.

Lets change the focus of your map from the world to the USA. Head to the 'Layout' popover then to the - 'Geo layout' dropdown. Select 'USA' for your scope and 'Albers usa' for type.

The color scheme automatically generated by Plotly can be changed within the TRACES popover. Head to the 'style' dropdown, and adjust the marker size and color to your liking.

Step 4

Finalizing Your Graph

We’ve titled our chart. You can too. We came up with 'Most Trafficked U.S. Airports.' Below that, we've specified that the hover text represents the number of arriving flights in Feb. 2011.

You can download your finished Plotly graph to embed in your Excel workbook. We also recommend including the Plotly link to the graph inside your Excel workbook for easy access to the interactive Plotly version. Get the link to your graph by clicking the 'Share' button. Download an image of your Plotly graph by clicking EXPORT on the toolbar.

To add the Excel file to your workbook, click where you want to insert the picture inside Excel. On the INSERT tab inside Excel, in the ILLUSTRATIONS group, click PICTURE. Locate the Plotly graph image that you downloaded and then double-click it. Notice that we also copy-pasted the Plotly graph link in a cell for easy access to the interactive Plotly version.